A judge in a specialist court has made a landmark decision which will have implications for relatives of terminally ill people, lawyers say. Mr Justice Peter Jackson ruled that a 50-year-old woman who had suffered from Huntington's disease for more than 20 years should be allowed to die after a…

An event to share information and help raise awareness of Advance Care Planning is to take place in Magherafelt tomorrow [Wednesday 13 September]. The Public Health Agency (PHA) and Health & Social Care Board (HSCB) in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support, on behalf of the Regional Palliative Care programme –…

Patients are being put at higher risk of dying in hospitals where lower staffing levels of registered nurses are leading to incomplete care, a new study has found. Jane Ball, principal research fellow at the University of Southampton, has found that lack of time is the "missing link" in understanding…

There has been a "worrying" increase in the reliance on emergency care for dementia patients nearing the end of their lives, experts have warned. Researchers have called for better support in the community for dementia sufferers after a new study found that patients are increasingly relying on emergency care as…

This survey of organisations providing specialist palliative care services to care homes highlights the good work they do and identifies the key challenges they face. The report, commissioned by Public Health England, undertaken by the Marie Curie Research Centre at Cardiff University, with input from the National Council for Palliative…

Health Secretary, Vaughan Gething has announced an additional £1m to further enhance End of Life Care services in Wales. The fund will go towards supporting the delivery of the End of Life Care Delivery Plan 2017-2020, published in March this year. The three-year-plan outlines how the Welsh Government intends to…

Testing for immune cell "hotspots" around tumours could help identify women at high risk of relapsing breast cancer, say scientists. Women with large numbers of immune cells clustered in and around tumours were more likely to see their treatment fail within 10 years, research showed. Scientists analysed tissue samples from…

Scotland is in the top 10 countries in Europe for levels of palliative care, although a new study has said there remains "room for improvement". For the first time, academics at Glasgow University compared the level of end of life care provided in Scotland with that in the rest of…